Rat vs Bat
by Orcishboy
Summary: This takes place during The Rat Files part 5: season 7, after the episode Help. Something bad is happening to Rat. Can the others help him?


**Rat Vs. Bat**

This takes place during The Rat Files part 5: season 7, after Help. Something bad is happening to Rat. Can the others help him?

It's night. A man is walking home from work when something knocks him to the ground. Before he has time to react, the thing bites down into his throat and begins to drink. Once his victim is dead, the vampire stands up and turns around(to face the camera). It's Rat! Rat then says, "There's a new sheriff in town."

The next day, Rat is walking in the halls between classes, when he sees three big guys harassing Dawn.

"Hey beautiful, want to go out sometime?", the largest guy asks, mockingly.

"Get lost creep", Dawn replies.

"What did you say to me, bitch?", The guy says, raising his voice.

"Hey Jackass!", Rat calls to him, "Why don't you pick on someone with your own steroid dosage?"

"Oh goody," one of the other guys says, "a nerd that we can beat up. Come one Tony, forget the girl. It sounds like he wants to fight." Tony then turns around, walks up to Rat, and throws a punch, which Rat easily avoids. Tony's friends then charge at Rat, knocking him to the ground. This awakens something in Rat, an anger like nothing he had ever felt before. Rat gets up, grabs one of Tony's lackies, and throws him against the wall. Tony's other friend then ran at Rat, but ends up thrown against the wall as well. Then Tony attacks, yelling,

"Nobody does that to my boys"

"Nobody but me.", Rat replies, lifting Tony over his head, and throwing him at his buddies.

"Y-you just wait..until-"

"What? Until you tell the rest of your gang that a kid half your size almost killed you with his bare hands? Now get out of here!" Tony and his friend quickly depart.

"Wow", dawn says, stunned. "What was that? I thought you were just going to punch them a few times."

"...So did I", Rat says, fingering the silver amulet his mom gave him years ago. Suddenly, The amulet felt hot on his fingers. Rat pulled his hand away quickly.

"What is it?", Dawn asks.

"Um...nothing.", Rat replies, not wanting to worry her. That night, Buffy is patrolling when she hears a cry for help coming from an alley up ahead. She immediately runs over, but is too late. The vampire had killed its victim. It turned to face Buffy, and she was shocked to see that it was Rat.

"Rat! What do you think you're doing!", she says. Rat says nothing, he simply jumps on the nearest rooftop and disappears. Buffy runs to Rat's house to find him seemingly asleep. She draws a stake, but she steps on a twig and snapped it. This wakes Rat up. He looks at Buffy and asks,

"What's up?"

"I saw you kill someone tonight.", Buffy says.

"That's impossible, I haven't been out all night. Ask Hunsha if you don't believe me" Buffy looks at Rat, then sighs and says,

"Maybe it was some sort of shape shifting demon, or something."

"Yeah, maybe, I'll look into it. See you in the morning then." Buffy leaves and Hunsha comes in.

"Why did you lie to the slayer?", Hunsha asks.

"What are you talking about?", Rat replies.

"You did go out tonight. You said that you were hungry."

"What?"

"Perhaps you were sleepwalking or something.", Hunsha shrugs, walking away. Rat thinks for a moment then asks himself,

"What's going one?"

"Oh, nothing's happening to you, just me.", says a voice to Rat's right. Rat turns to face on of the mirrors he has hanging around the house to help detect vampires. In it, his reflection smiled back at him, but Rat wasn't smiling. "Hey there, old hoss", Rat's reflection said.

"Okay it's official I've completely lost my mind.", Rat muttered to himself.

"Oh no, you're as sane as you've always been, old hoss." the reflection said.

"What are you?"

"Me? I'm your dark half. The Hyde to your Jekyll, the Hulk to your Bruce Banner, the Gollum to your Smeagol. Basically, I'm the brawn while you're the brain. But you can call me Matt 'the bat'"

"How is this possible?", Rat asked.

"Oh, I've always been here, but you were taught to lock me away when we were at the crazy house so many years ago. Then, three years ago, you let me out when you touched the Infernal crystal(read Heigh Ho). If it weren't for that idiot Riley I'd of been free for good. However, it did open the door a crack, so every time you fed your vampiric urges by drinking blood, I grew stronger. And now I've gained partial control.", Bat explained

"So I have killed."

"Technically, I'm the one who's killed."

"Willow, she can help me, I've heard of a spell that kills mystical personalities.", Rat thought out loud. He quickly teleported over to Buffy's house, when she answered the door Rat said, "I need Willow's help. Now!". Rat relayed everything that Bat had told him to Buffy, Willow, and Dawn. Willow immediately went to work on the spell. A few moments later, Rat howled in pain and threw off his amulet and silver knife, his skin smoked as he touched them.

"Rat!", Dawn cried.

"Sorry, Rat's not home right now.", Bat said. He quickly ran to Buffy's weapons chest and grabbed an axe. "Now I'll do what William the Bloody and Angelus couldn't, kill Buffy the vampire slayer!", he yells. Bat charges at Buffy, but she dodges him and grabs a sword. She and Bat traded blows for a few moments when Bat gripped his head in pain. "Willow.", he muttered. Bat ran up to Willow's room and knocked down her door. He found her chanting with assorted bones piled up in front of her. Bat swung the axe at the pile, breaking the bones. Suddenly, a jolt of energy knocked him to the ground.

"Rat...or Bat, are you okay?", Willow asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine...and I'm Rat"

"Prove it.", Buffy says, entering the room. "Rat is supposed to be the smart one. Say something smart." Rat then begins to explain Einstein's theory of relativity in great detail. After a minute or so, Buffy stopped him, saying, "Alright! Alright! You're Rat." However, it was actually Bat talking. By interrupting Willow's spell, Rat's knowledge was fed to Bat.

"I can't believe how easy it was to fool those losers.", Bat said.

"Big deal, once I'm back in control I'll tell Willow to do the spell again.", Rat said through Bat's reflection.

"Oh, you won't get that chance, because I'm ending this tonight" Bat then pulled out a large black knife. "With this knife I'll become whole. There's just one thing missing." Then there was a knock at the door. "And there it is!" Bat answered the door to meet Dawn.

"Hey", she said, "I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

"I'm fine", Bat said in Rat's easygoing tone.

"Plus, you left your knife and amulet at my house."

"Oh...thanks", Bat tried to touch them, but quickly pulled away.

"Rat?" Bat then punches Dawn, knocking her out.

"I can assure you, it's Bat now." When she woke up, Dawn was tied to a chair. Bat was sharpening his knife, humming a tune Dawn didn't recognize. Dawn tried to break free, to which Bat said, "Don't bother struggling. We vampires are experts at knots."

"What are you planning to do to me? As if I didn't already know."

"I plan to kill you, of course. But first I must perform a blood rite. You see, Dracula, my grandsire, wasn't sired by another vamp. He became a demon through a ritual of his own creation. To kill a loved one condemns your soul to Hell, and when done with this knife and the right incantation, it replaces your soul with a demon." Bat suddenly clutched his head, Rat came out long enough to say,

"Dawn, forgive me!"

"Forgive you? I'm the one getting my hands dirty." Bat says.

"Rat, please! You have to fight this!", Dawn cried.

"That's enough out of you!", Bat said, gagging Dawn with a piece of tape. He then begins to chant in Latin, which translates to, "Blood of the pure shall now be tainted through the power of this blade enchanted. With this sacrifice I make, I pray to thee, my weakness take. Demons from below I call to thee, take back my soul and make me free."

"Hunsha!", Rat cried, breaking through Bat's mental barrier.

"Hunsha?",Bat mocked, I sent him away.

"That was your mistake sir-", came a voice from behind him. Bat turned around to receive an arrow in the shoulder and find Hunsha standing in front of him. "-I never leave you alone." Bat lunges at Hunsha, but is easily flung across the room. "Did you think me a feeble old man! Orcs grow ever stronger with age. Unlike humans who begin to regress after a few decades." Bat then flings his knife but misses Hunsha. "You missed", Hunsha mocked.

"Wasn't aiming for you buddy.", Rat strained to say. Bat regained control and saw that the knife had severed the rope on Dawn's left arm. Bat tries to get to her before she frees herself but Hunsha blocks his path, swinging his sword. Bat dodges a few of Hunsha's blows, but then receives a sword in the stomach. He pulls the sword out and throws it, along with Hunsha across the room.

"Hunsha!", Dawn cries, now freed. She runs over to him and he wheezes,

"Take my sword. It's silver, it can kill him."

"What?"

"I'd rather see him dead than like this." Dawn grabs Hunsha's sword and ran at Bat, who had retrieved his knife."

"Say, didn't your sister do something similar to this with her stalker? You're getting more like her every day.", Bat mocks. They then duel, easily blocking each other's blows. "My weaker half trained you well.", Bat says. Then, Dawn slices off the hand that was holding Bat's knife. With another slash she cuts off his left leg right below the knee. Bat falls to the ground. He looks up at Dawn and says, "Go ahead, kill us. Kill one of your best friends."

"You're not him.", Dawn whispers. She then drives the sword into his heart. Bat lets out a cry of pain, then falls silent. A small amount of ash fell around him. His breathing, which had grown much slower since Bat emerged, began to speed up.

"He's still alive!", Hunsha said walking up behind Dawn. "I think you killed Bat, but not Rat." Hunsha then magically reattaches Rat's hand and leg. Rat wakes up a few minutes later.

"Why didn't you kill me?", he mutters.

"Technically,. She did, Master Matt.", Hunsha said. "Do you see that pile of ash over there? That's all that remains of Bat."

"Thank you Dawn.", Rat says, getting up and beginning to weep, "I am forever in your debt."

**The End **


End file.
